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Tuesday, 16 April 2013

The use of psychedelic drugs for the enhancement of
creativity has always amazed me. My first encounter was Christabel by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge which was allegedly written (the first part at least) while he
was under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs (probably a naturally occurring
psychedelic compound produced by mushrooms). His friend Wordsworth was also alleged to have snorted cocaine regularly (and probably together, in Dove Cottage).

The novelist-philosopher Aldous Huxley (1959/1971) made
similar observations following his personal experience with another
psychoactive substance, mescaline.

“…A man consists of what I may
call an Old World of personal consciousness and, beyond a dividing sea, a
series of New Worlds – the not too distant Virginias and Carolinas of the
personal subconscious and the vegetative soul; the Far West of the collective
unconscious ... ; and, across another, vaster ocean, at the antipodes of
everyday consciousness, the world of Visionary Experience…”

Read on....

During the 1960s is was still permissible to administer
psychedelic to volunteers and to try to quantify the impact experimentally.
More recently a medical doctor, Dr. Strassman, at the
University of New Mexico's School of Medicine in Albuquerque (a tenured Associate
Professor of Psychiatry) administered approximately 400 doses of N,N-dimethyltryptamine
(DMT) a powerful entheogen, to 60 human volunteers over a five
year period. His studies aimed to investigate the effects of DMT, that he
hypothesizes is produced by the human brain in the pineal gland. DMT is found
naturally in various natural sources, and is related to human neurotransmitters
such as serotonin and melatonin.

Of the 60 human volunteers who ingested DMT under Strassman's
watch, more than half reported experiences ranging from profound
encounters/interaction with non-human beings to observing highly detailed,
self-transforming geometric patterns and other things of similar nature.

Dr. Strassman’s interest in this field was sparked by the
earlier work of Willis Harman,
an engineer, social scientist, academic, futurist, writer, and visionary who graduated
from the University of Washington in 1939 with a B.S. degree in Electrical
Engineering, an M.S. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from
Stanford University. He is best remembered for his work with SRI International.
His personal credentials and the fact that SRI International is an internationally
respected non-profit research institute lent weight to his otherwise esoteric
work as founder of the Institute of NoeticSciences. In December 2007, SRI launched a spin-off company, Siri Inc.,
which Apple acquired in April 2010. In fact there is also the story of Steve
Jobs asking interviewees when they last took LSD.

Although both Harman and Strassman have impeccable
credentials they both appear to veer far from the realms of orthodox science.
However, they are by no means alone and one scientist in particular, BennyShanon, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has spent
years studying the special state of mind induced by the psychoactive Amazonian
potion ayahuasca.

Here I have put together a cut and paste summary of Shanon’s
“Altered States”
paper that helps me – I hope it helps you.

Shanon contends that consciousness can be considered as a
system with defining parameters. These parameters normally have values that correspond
to our normal experience of ourselves and the world.

From a structural perspective
consciousness is, essentially, a cognitive system governing human subjective
experience. The system is defined by a series of parameters that can take
different values. Changes in these values result in different states of
consciousness.

However, he believes there’s no reason why the parameters
couldn’t occupy values beyond those ordinarily experienced

Any general, comprehensive theory
of cognition has to encompass both the ordinary and the non-ordinary facets of
mind - the special state of mind induced by ayahuasca

I’ve summarised, in his words, the parameters and the effect
of non-ordinary parameter values induced by imbibing ayahuasca.

1.Agency

Prima facie it would seem inconceivable that the thoughts
that pass through a person's head would not be his. Yet, with ayahuasca, people
do at times experience thoughts as not being their own.

2.Personal identity.

The self, the agent of consciousness, manifests a sense of
personal identity. Ayahuasca can bring about modifications, at times radical,
of this identity; these result in experiences of personal transformation or
metamorphosis

3.Unity

Normally, personal identity exhibits unity but the shaman can
exist in two realms simultaneously – being himself, here and now, and at the
same time assuming the identity of another person or creature and being
elsewhere, in other realms

4.Individuation.

Unity marks the cohesiveness and inter-connectedness of the
self; individuation marks its distinctness. Normally, consciousness is
associated with well-defined individuated autonomy. With ayahuasca, there are
instances where that is no longer experienced to be the case and the sense of
the individual self dissipates. Shannon came to appreciate the experience of
non-individuated group-consciousness through one particular ayahuasca-induced
vision. In it, he found himself in the midst of an ant colony. It dawned upon
him that consciousness was the property of the colony, not of the individual
ants.

5.Boundaries of the self and the differentiation
of states

Both identity and individuation are further defined by means
of contrast. With ayahuasca, the experienced boundary between inner and outer
reality may dissolve. With ayahuasca, it may be difficult or even impossible to
know whether one is perceiving or remembering, whether one is perceiving or
generating thoughts, whether one is thinking or perceiving the thoughts of
others. It will be noted that patterns which are seemingly similar to those
described are encountered in psychopathology and known under the labels of
"depersonalization" and "derealization".

6.Calibration.

As a rule, in order for an attribute to apply, some standard
must be assumed. Things are big or small, heavy or light, slow or fast and so
on, relative to certain standards. The same holds for conscious experience.
Both the sense of self and the perception of the world presuppose standards,
hence calibration. Under the effect of ayahuasca all of these may change. For
instance, one may feel that one's body is larger, lighter or heavier; the inner
field of vision is reported to be significantly increased. Instead of having an
angular span of 60-70°, it can reach 160° and even more.

7.The locus of consciousness.

A special aspect of calibration is the experienced locus of
consciousness. Where is consciousness located? Of course, normally we locate
our consciousness within our physical body. With ayahuasca this need not be the
case. One may even find oneself watching one's body from the outside.

8.Time.

Just as we have normal feelings of the size and weight of
our bodies, so too we have a normal sense of temporality. Whereas physical time
is defined in terms of an abstract, universal matrix, psychological time is
defined in terms of events. As experienced with ayahuasca, modified temporality
is often coupled with sentiments of enhanced meaningfulness and of strong
noetic feelings (see below). In its turn, the experience of atemporality may take
two extreme forms. In the first, time ceases to be relevant and temporality
gives way to pure semanticity; in the second, neither time nor meaning are
pertinent.

9.Connectedness to the world.

Intentionality affords connectedness to the world and makes
it possible for human beings to know the world. Typically, with ayahuasca
connectedness to the world is felt to be increased. The enhanced connectedness
may be felt toward nature at large as well as toward particular items.

10.Noesis.

The issue of knowledge raises, of course, very difficult
epistemological questions. Are the noetic feelings ayahuasca induces justified?
Is the knowledge involved indeed veridical?

11.The conferral of reality.

Theoreticians have argued that what distinguishes true
perception, on the one hand, and memories, imagination and dreams, on the
other, is that the former is clearer, more distinct, and more coherent than the
latter. This indicates that reality judgement is actually a parameter that can
take different values. Dreams and imagination usually decrease the value
assigned to this parameter; the ayahuasca experience may increase it

12.Self-Consciousness.

Not only are we conscious of the world, we are also
conscious of ourselves as cognitive agents who think and act in the world. On
extreme occasions, there can be situations in which one's notion of one's own
self is completely lost. This may be characterized as an enchantment, a kind of
spiritual seduction. Absorbed by the marvels of ayahuasca visioning, one loses
track of everything else. One forgets where one is, what is happening in the
real world around one, and who one is.

13.Semantic parameters.

This refers to the attribution of meaningfulness, to
aesthetic sensitivity, and to a sense of holiness (or sanctity). All these are
very salient with ayahuasca as things and states of affairs are perceived as
not contingent but rather, invested with meaning. Whereas the attribution of
meaningfulness can be readily incorporated within existing cognitive models,
the two parameters here indicated extend beyond usual cognitive framework.
Patterns encountered using ayahuasca suggest that the aesthetic and the sacred
are fundamental determinants of human consciousness.

5 comments:

You might like this. 45 self portraits done by the same guy, each while under the influence of a different drug:http://thechive.com/2012/08/09/self-portraits-done-to-a-different-drug-every-day-45-photos/

This guy has some medicine cupboard! Actually, I've been prescribed quite a few of these and happened upon a few others on life's journey. In all but two cases (one prescribed, one not) I hadn't any awareness of being in a different state of mind - even with high doses of morphine. I guess what the self portraits do is provide insights that otherwise he/I would miss through this lack of self awareness.

Oh, and by the way, yesterday was the 70th anniversary of LSD. And I heard that PCP research is back in vogue. Without the early research on psychedelic drugs neurotransmitters like serotonin would never have been discovered.

psychedelic drugs are also belonging to a kinds of drug. so it also has toxin.and government has inhibited this kinds of selling. is this really can enhancing our creativity? I think this should be a discussing topic.